New World ⇝ Josh Klinghoffer [completed]

Chapter 29 (Part 2)

Josh's P.O.V.

I wide opened the door to the nice, retreated restaurant in the corner and let Violet enter before me.

"Watch your head." I said pointing to the lowered wall.

I pulled the door behind me and lowered my head and walked down the stairs. Once it was safe to stay normally, I pushed some hair out of my face and tucked a part of it behind my ear.

"Yeah, um... I made a reservation..." I started.

"Hello mister, miss... What's your name?" asked politely one of the waiters at the entrance.

"Um.. Klinghoffer." I answered hesitating for a moment.

The waiter looked down in a notebook and after few moments he looked up at me and Violet: "Right. Table for two. This way, please." he said leading the way. I grabbed Violet's hand and followed the waiter, keeping a two-steps distance. We passed through a room with few tables, all occupied and climbed one small set of stairs.

"Here you go. One moment, I'll bring you the menus." the waiter said leaving us near the table. It was in the corner, that's exactly what I wished: a peaceful and calm place.

"What's on your mind?" Violet said smiling, but she looked like she was looking through me most likely in the 4th dimension.

"Nothing." I lied and faked a smile.

"You know damn well you can't lie to me." she said looking directly at me, coming back from the 4th dimension.

"I swear it's nothing." I lied again with the same fake smile stuck on my face.

"Are you sure?" she looked in my eyes. I felt like her eyes were trying to search the truth behind mine.

"Just a headache." I said trying to get away with my little kind-of-lie.

"See? I knew there was something wrong. Here have a pill. Have you slept enough last night?" she said sounding worried towards the end.

"Yes, I am perfectly fine, just the wind. It was pretty cold." I giggled.

She raised and eyebrow. "Cold wind? In L.A? During summer?"

I ignored her skeptical look and the waiter brought us our menus.

"When you're ready to order, just make a sign." he informed and left.

The skepticism in her eyes was replaced by some sort of amazement.

"Oh my god what do they make the food from?" she giggled. I guess she was referring to the prices and slightly laughed.

Once we decided what we wanted to order, I raised my hand a little and looked to the corner where the waiter was and he quickly came to our table.

"Yes?" he asked preparing his pen and notebook.

"Can we order?" I asked because of my habit.

"Of course you can!" he laughed nervous.

"So we'll have two beef stews, one salad and..." I started talking to the waiter and turned to Violet and asked in a lower tone "Beer or wine?"

"Why not both?" she laughed.

"For the moment red wine please." I said turning back to the waiter.

"Alright, I'll brin the wine right away." he said leaving the room probably to tell the chef the order and bring the wine.

"Violet, this is for you." I said taking out the little silver bag with the rose in it. I got up from my seat and looked around the room. Empty. I stood next to her and handed over the bag. She looked through it and squeaked and jumped.

I jumped off my seat as well so I wouldn't get hit and she jumped after me and wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me closer and shortly kissed my lips.

"Thank you so so much! I love you so much!" she said and kissed me again.

I saw with the corner of my eye that the waiter was coming back so I returned to my initial seat and so did Violet. I stretched my arms to the other side of the table and held her hands and looked deeply in her eyes. "I love you too."

"Josh...." she started in a deep voice.

"What? What's wrong?" I answered with slight worry in my voice.

"Did you know that you have long arms?" she said trying her best to keep a straight face. I cracked up laughing and caressed her cheek.

"Here's the wine." the waiter said when he got next to our table. He grabbed two wine glasses and poured about half a glass in both and put them back on the table.

I reached for my glass and took a sip from it and nodded that it was okay, it wasn't needed to be changed. Violet tried too and nodded as well and the waiter walked away.

I heard my phone ringing and looked at the screen and swiped to close the incoming call.

"Why didn't you answer it? Josh, I feel that there's something else bothering you, not your head. Please tell me." she begged.

"Promise you won't get mad at me?"  I said a little nervous.

"Yes. Go ahead. I'm all ears."

"There was this girl I met in December 1999. We were together for maximum one week and then we broke up, about two weeks before 2000 began and never heard from her or about her anything. Until now. Today I received a call from her and I can't understand how did she get my number and why does she want to talk to me because I don't wanna talk to her." I explained feeling like I took a massive stone off my heart.

"Oh, I get it now. Just ignore her." she said with a bright smile spreading across her face.

We waited about half an hour for the food to come. Finally, I saw the waiter coming and prepared to receive the food. Few moments later I noticed there were two people following him and turned my head to see Violet's face.

"What? You look like you saw a ghost." I giggled seeing her pale face. Her eyes grew and looked back at me with her mouth opened, trying to say something but she couldn't. "What is it? And if you're trying to scare me, it's not funny." I asked once more. She lifted a finger and pointed to the direction where the waiter leaded the couple that came.

"That. That. Is that. John? John Fru-Frusciante?" she whispered.

"What? John?" I repeated trying to understand what she just said. She just nodded.

I got up from my seat and offered her my hand and she got up and we walked to the table where the two people were. When we got there the waiter just handed them the menus and was ready to leave. Once the waiter left I looked at the people at the table. 

"If you want any photo or autograph I am really sorry, today I ain't in the mood for these." I recognized John's voice, slightly irritated. He looked out of the menu at us and a smile appeared on his face and walked to me and grabbed me in a brotherly hug. 

"Oh my god, it's been so much since I haven't seen you Josh!" he said.

"Hey man!" I answered and shook his hand.

"Oh, who do we have here?" he said slightly lifting his glasses, studying Violet. "Is she your girlfriend?" he asked excited. "Are you his girlfriend?" he quickly asked Violet. 

"Yes." we replied together, Violet looking down at our hands.

"You look so good together! I'm so happy for both of you! You're so lucky you met!" he said. The excitement in his voice was really obvious. "What's your name?" he added looking at Violet.

"Violet Houston." she struggled to keep a not-extremely-excited tone. 

"Nice name." he answered.

Violet looked at me with puppy-eyes. I knew what she wanted.  

 "Oh, I almost forgot." John giggled quickly moving out of the way, revealing a woman staying across his seat. "This is Maggie, my girlfriend." he introduced the woman. She got up and shook both mine and Violet's hands.

"John, what about we go all out some time in the near future? I come with Violet and you can bring Maggie." I suggested. 

"Yeah, that sounds AMAZING." he said.